Facebook updates the news feed, but you may not notice a difference

Strictly a visual shake up

Facebook is rolling out redesigned news feed with a very familiar visual refresh.

The social network's updated look for the news feed makes the desktop and mobile versions look the same. As such, all news items are now separated into their own individual boxes with larger images.

The redesigned news feed returns the boxed-out look Facebook tried with the complete overhaul from just two days shy of a year ago. Users hated it, almost universally in fact, and now it's back again.

Unlike Facebook's last go however, the company decided not to rearrange the layout and navigation. So everyone who disliked the way the company moved the chat list to the left-hand side should be glad to hear it's returned in its proper right-side place.

See if you can spot the differences

Baby steps

In the same blog post Facebook quantified that the changes are simply visual, writing that it "do[es] not affect how we surface content to people, nor do they change how stories are ranked in news feed."

"Though in the new design all images are larger, both organic stories and ads will be the same size - similar to the way images appear on mobile," the company continued.

The changes are a bit underwhelming, but things have to move slowly when you have more than 1.19 billion users. Meanwhile, Facebook has side loaded its bolder moves to the Creative Labs division, which recently released its first product, Paper.

Facebook said it's rolling out the new news feed design to a majority of members this month.